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Coal scam: Centre admits lapses

New Delhi, Jan 9 IBNS | 1 year ago

Replying to an affidavit on the coal scam, the central government on Thursday reportedly told the Supreme Court that there were lapses in coal block allocations.

"Ideally coal block allocation should have been a consultative exercise with the state governments and it could have been done in a better way," Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati was quoted as saying by the media.

"However, we must mention that we took decision in good faith but something turned out to be wrong," he said.

Meanwhile, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed two more First Information Reports (FIRs) in the coal scam.

According to reports on Wednesday, the FIRs were filed against two companies - BLA Industries Pvt Ltd and Gastron Technologies Pvt Ltd - which where allotted coal blocks during the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.

The FIRs also named unknown officials of the Coal Ministry.

The investigating agency has so far registered 14 FIRs and three preliminary enquiries (PEs) in the coal scam dated between 2006 and 2009.

The coal scam had sprung into headlines after the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report on coal block allocation estimated a loss of Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the national exchequer owing to irregular allocations.

The CAG named 25 private companies as beneficiaries of coal block allocations in various states. They included companies like Essar Power, Hindalco, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Jindal Steel and Power Ltd.